The tenderness of love
by mrytale2-5
Summary: that what is gone, here and that that is forgotten.  Written for the theme song challenge on CCOAC.  Can also be applicable to the Seaver leaving challenge.


**Story for the CCOAC theme song challenge, my prompts were Seaver and Don't you (Forget about me) by Simple Minds. Sorry for the late entry, I've been a bit absent from here and have a load of excuses but lets be honest none that you want to hear, so one with the story...**

**The tenderness of love...gone, here and that that is forgotten...**

I waited until the door had closed behind me, crouching down to pick up the pile of mail that had accumulated whilst I had been away, once it was in my hands I subconsciously turned back around and pushed the two bolts, top and bottom on the door. I had seen too much violence in my quite short life to lay awake wondering who was going to break in through sheer luck, immediately I just dropped my go bag by the bathroom door, not wanting to deal with the dirty contents until I had had a good night's sleep. It wasn't much, this small bolt hole of mine, but it was home, and now that I had graduated from the FBI academy there was a bit more cash to splash about and I had chosen this tiny place because of its location rather than the size of it. The pile of letters were still clasped tight in my hand as it took me ten steps to walk into the main room of the apartment which had its compact kitchen nailed on in the far corner and it was there that I headed, throwing the mail onto the counter top as I started grabbing the coffee from the cupboard. The last 72 hours had been hell, physically and mentally, I was exhausted but in a way too tired to go to bed. Pouring myself an inviting warm cup of coffee I once again picked up the mail, not really for any reason, as I wandered over to the small futon that was the only soft furniture other than my bed that adorned my whole apartment. The letters got thrown onto my lap as I curled my feet under my thighs and placed the too hot cup onto the floor, grabbing the remote from atop of the cushion, where I had left it 76 hours ago, I turned on the television and quickly had a tuneless bint booming out as American Idol blasted onto the screen. Quickly I reached and turned the volume down, not wanting to listen to yet another blasphemous rendition of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful. The pile of letters grabbed my attention once again as I started to flick through the pile, discarding the junk as I flung it towards the bin near the bookcase, not caring as it landed short, wide and high, but then my fingers lingered, hovering as my eyes recognised the familiar hand written envelope. Instantaneously my heart ached, my emotional levels were already rock bottom, they had nowhere else to fall, without thinking, virtually numb I got up and walked towards my bedroom and the wardrobe, retrieving the green storage box and placing the unopened letter on the top. Coldly I walked back and picked up the nearly cold cup of coffee, the mail had now passed into a distant memory as I tried in vain to find something mind-numbing on the television, just as I thought that I had stumbled onto something good my cell started to ring, the instantly recognisable tune of 'My Way' ringing out.

"Can't I just have ONE NIGHT?"

The sound of my voice reached a crescendo as I ran over to my bag by the bathroom and picked up the offending item, half tempted to throw it towards the toilet but given the accuracy of my aim with the mail earlier I only imagined that it would fly towards the mirror and land me with even more bad luck than that I was already facing.

"Seaver."

"Ashley, hey it's Dave."

Yeah I had kind of guessed that, seeing as I programmed your number with a personalised ringtone, but I didn't want to give him the pleasure.

"Hi Dave, have we got another case?"

My mind and body certainly couldn't handle another call out in such short notice, but as the new girl in the team I wasn't going to admit that to anybody, and that included the person who believed themselves to be my surrogate father.

"No, no you're ok kiddo."

"Well it's kind of late..."

I didn't mean to sound sharp, but I was spent, all I wanted to do was to finish my drink and curl up on the futon, fall asleep with the tv on for company.

"But it is kind of important, can I come over?"

Sighing heavily, I made no attempt to disguise the noise, I reluctantly made the right noises.

"Yeah sure."

"Ok I'll see you in twenty."

With that he was gone, no chance to disagree, argue, although I had learnt by now that protestations were useless.

* * *

><p>The cup of coffee was empty and I had failed to replenish it, hadn't changed the tv channel, just lay on the futon waiting for the inevitable and after 24 minutes it did.<p>

I walked towards the door, annoyed at the incessant knocking, it wasn't as if I didn't know who was waiting outside and for goodness sake he could at least give me a chance to walk and answer the door without the continuous knocking! I speedily opened the door and saw the ominous figure standing there, brown takeout bag in hand, combined with a devilish grin adorning his face.

"Come on in."

Graciously I held the door open, when what I really wanted to do was slam it shut in his face, not specifically at Dave, but at that moment on the whole wide world. I didn't even bat an eyelid as Dave walked in, headed straight towards my kitchen and started making himself at home.

"I got Chinese."

The grin on his face was unmistakable, it was the one he used when he wanted to spend some time with her, alone, playing video games, listening to music, or just talking. A shrug of my shoulders was enough to garner him my acceptance as Dave started rooting around the cupboards, quickly finding plates and spooning food out onto them.

"Here you go."

He walked over as if it were he's place not mine, striding purposefully to the futon and presenting the plate to me.

"Come on I now that you haven't eaten."

I raised an eyebrow as I accepted the plate, moving my legs to allow Dave to sit down next to me, it wasn't exactly a move of acceptance, more of one that allowed him to sit on the only seat in the room.

"Thanks."

The grin just grew wider as he brought up a piled high fork towards his mouth.

"That's ok, I knew that you wouldn't look after yourself anyway, that was a tough case, on top of Hotch's news, but then to come back home and find 'that' awaiting you..."

I raised my eyebrows, wondering what really Dave was referring to, either the envelope that I had already cast away, or the news about the possible opportunities that awaited me.

"Oh come on Ashley, from that time when I met you at 18 years old, Hotch and I made sure that you were safe and that is never going to change. I'm getting old, but with that comes the advantage of experience. I saw how broken you were when I arrested your dad, I didn't want that to impact on you more than it had to, I have contacts, lots in fact. I know when you receive letters like you did today."

My heart pounded harder, the letters that my father sent me were personal, yeah ok I didn't read them but that didn't mean that I wanted anyone else to know about the correspondence that he sent me.

"How?"

"I've got contacts Ashley, lots of them, in lots of places. Police precincts, FBI offices, journalists...you count them I know them!"

I shrugged my shoulders once again and played around with the food on my plate.

"Why do you continue with this?

"Because someone has to. Someone has to keep you on the right track, god only knows that left to your devices after graduating you would have volunteered for some obscure department, doing yourself more harm but the world as a whole more good."

I couldn't stifle the laughter any longer, without anticipation it leapt out as I put the plate of food onto the floor.

"Why can't I just throw them away? Discard them into the trash where they belong? Where he belongs?"

I watched as the grin shrunk, the fork was laid bare on the plate as the serious face turned to look at me and I knew that I was in trouble.

"Well that would be kind of easy wouldn't it? Just to throw everything away, bundle it up into a tiny package to hide away? If there was one thing that Prentiss could have taught you it would be that in order to that you would reach for the impossible and would invariably fall."

I screwed up my face and stared hard at the floor, Emily had been good for me, supported me when no one else on the team wanted to, and that included Dave and Aaron, who knew my history all too well, they obviously thought that I was tarnished and now as I thought about the email I received on the plane ride home, that certainly gave weight to the under dogs.

"Why do you care, really Dave, I want an honest answer here."

I didn't want his pity, too often lately I had been on the receiving end and now, I wanted an honest appraisal of my qualities, there was too much riding on my decisions at the moment for idle decisions to reign supreme.

"So you've had a phone call?"

"Of course I have. I'm the daughter of a god damn serial killer, everyone in the FBI wants a piece of me and now that the BAU has given the green light..."

"Jesus Ashley you know that if we could..."

The silence lay in the air, neither one of us willing to break it. But I wasn't the intruder here, I couldn't help the hand that I had been dealt, I had learnt from an early age to roll with the punches and this was just another prime example.

"Just promise me Dave."

"I know kiddo, like you can't with you daddy, I can't with you..."

A sarcastic grin streaked across my face as I shook my head, unable to stop the laughter.

"Don't forget about me."

"No danger there kiddo."

I watched soberly as Dave rested his plate down and walked out of the apartment, for once I had no inclination to go after him, no need to make sure that the door was locked, I knew, that along with my father, there were another group of people that had helped shaped my life and no matter what, I would not forget them.

_Fin._


End file.
